Readers' Letters: Time for Jews to intervene in Gaza

Not long ago, Jews were systematically slaughtered, starved, tormented and sent to crematoria in gas chambers and death camps to perish silently. Their emaciated images are still engraved in our human consciousness. They rekindled our collective remembrance and mourning and offered us not only stories about inhumane barbarism but also stories of unswerving strength, resilience, hope and intrepidity to triumph over adversity and be an impetus for us to work for justice, equality, inclusivity, diversity, respect for human rights and dignities.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London

Bye bye Kate

Kate Forbes has announced – to all intensive purposes – that if she is to spend her waking hours dealing with children, she would much sooner deal with her own, thank you very much.

The hordes of (largely male) creeps and snollygosters that have grown like fungus through much of Scottish society will celebrate the news, doubtless with fictitious references to her supposed religion inspired “bigotry” without being able to quote one instance of a contentious – let alone partisan – statement she has made once.

They always did feel threatened by a woman not afraid to do a proper day’s work.

With her passing goes our last politician of integrity or sense of duty, and the last positive role model of plurality for a feckless generation of secular Covenanters obsessed with ostracising anyone not signed up to their social media trending “Sound Doctrine”.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

The sinking SNP

It would seem that we, the electorate, are witnessing the “crew abandoning a sinking ship”.

The number of MSPs from the SNP who have intimated their intention to stand down before the 2026 Holyrood Election is ever on the increase. Even Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, has decided to call it a day.

But anyway, there is little doubt that 7th May, 2026, will see the demise of the SNP/Green Administration at Holyrood. It is my view that following the next Holyrood Elections much less emphasis will be placed on matters which are so obviously not included within the powers granted under the Scotland Acts.

The SNP Administration has, over its period in office, devoted too much time attempting to interfere with Reserved Matters – which remain under the jurisdiction of Westminster.

If the Scottish Parliament is to continue to exist many changes will require to be implemented by the incoming Administration.

Far too much emphasis has been placed by the SNP/Green alliance on matters not in any way relating to Holyrood’s remit.

Robert I G Scott, Ceres, Fife

Vanishing acts

The SNP has been and continues to be a vanishing species.

Rather like the fairy tale of “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs”, the SNP talked up North Sea gas and oil as the way in which an independent Scotland would become some kind of northern European Saudi Arabia.

Then, under Nicola Sturgeon, the road to independence came to a branching of the path and she chose to abandon oil on the platform of wind power, and Scotland has been plagued by the horrific windmills ever since, with landscapes destroyed, no matter what the locals think.

This was accompanied by gender identity nonsense and, quite suddenly, the people saw that, like another fairy tale, the emperor had no clothes.

Meanwhile, all the leading people in the SNP started to retire, or resign.

If they didn’t leave the SNP for the Alba party, they decided to leave politics when they saw the writing on the wall.

Now, Shona Robison and Fiona Hyslop join Humza Yousaf as they decide to retire. Mhairi Black has left the SNP, as has Fergus Ewing. Rather like Kate Forbes, Fergus Ewing has occasionally sounded alarm at the antics of the Nats.

Now, they have lost one of the few amongst them who occasionally talked sense.

Perhaps those leaving the SNP should have a theme tune? May I suggest “It’s All Over Now”.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Holyrood ref

With the departure next year of Kate Forbes, perhaps the only nationalist MSP and minister with a slim grasp on reality, the rumblings about the very existence of Holyrood grow. I for one would welcome its going.

Just think – at a stroke an instant saving of £billions. More cash for the NHS, Roads, Schools and much else. Women’s Rights could be reinforced, not taken away. We could return Scotland to where it once sat proudly at the top table – a leader in engineering and nuclear and oil and gas technology.

At last, no more perpetual Holyrood whining and blaming everyone else for Scotland's self-inflicted ills. And a final bonus of no more cash-devouring pretend embassies and multiple jollies for the SNP’s boys and girls.

Let us have a referendum, not on the breaking up of the UK, but on the continuing existence of Holyrood as it is.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Max madness

Your article by Catriona Stewart “report for doomed to fail minimum income guarantee” illuminates the ongoing profligacy of a group of alleged politicians and indeed in some of their eyes “statesmen and women”.

£1.3 million spent on a pigs-might-fly scheme, where from the very outset it was patently obvious this would, if introduced, bankrupt the nation and further encourage the anti-work brigade (many of whom are SNP supporters, funnily enough) to do nothing to change their circumstances.

To even think this was a “goer” should surely prove this lot are utterly deluded fools.

They complain they do not have sufficient “levers” to carry out policies, may we thank the Lord indeed if this is the case – blatantly obvious to anyone, this is not the case in the most devolved nation in the western world.

While disagreeing with Kate Forbes on the Indie issue, I wish her well, one of the few with a moral backbone, though I suspect her leaving has more to it than juggling her private life with parliament.

I am sure the example above among countless others would also be a factor. In this case one could not level the sobriquet of “rats deserting the sinking ship” to Ms Forbes.

She leaves with her dignity intact, sadly leaving the real rats still on board the doomed ship SNP.

D Millar, Lauder

Bird brained

E Campbell’s letter of 5 August quoting the death rate of birds by various methods and the likely number by the Berwick Bank wind farm, misses one crucial point, that it will be an increase on previous numbers.

It is likely to be sea birds who will be the main casualties, not because cats or guns but because of machines that only work when the wind blows. Mechanical power production does not present that problem.

C Lowson, Hampshire

Cat protection

If E Campbell’s claim is correct, (letters 5 August 2025) then cats kill one quarter of all UK birds every year, which we very much doubt.

In dismissing as relatively small the number of birds that will be killed by Berwick Bank, he/she also ignores the significant cumulative impact of wind farms and the fact that many of the birds that will be killed by Berwick Bank are in serious decline and, according to the RSPB and other wildlife charities, will “catapult some species towards extinction”.

They are not the same species which will be killed by cats in our back gardens.

Cats provide companionship for many, including the elderly and vulnerable in society. They provide a service in natural pest control, eliminating the need for poisons which affect the entire food chain and inflict a miserable death on many innocent creatures.

Regrettably it is true that where deterrence fails to reduce the risk of birds to aircraft, birds will be shot.

While we agree that jetting off on vacation a couple of times a year is unnecessary, there are unfortunately many other reasons that make flying a necessity.

We can’t do without cats or planes in our lives but there is absolutely no need for any more wind farms, on or offshore.

Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin

Cable news

Let’s be careful with those new Berwick Bank Wind Turbines.

While those new sea wind turbines can supply “more than twice Scotland’s needs”, the power they manufacture has to be led from far out to sea to the land.

Twice over recent years off Orkney, the main cable that supplies them from the mainland has been mysteriously severed. Although it is once again mended, the reason for its being broken is not yet understood.

Surely there is a lesson here!

I trust that the electricity from the new Berwick Bank power source is linked to the land by many separate cables, which hopefully arrive at widely varying points on the land.

Europe has recently been considering what action can be taken to prevent some possible enemy from severing cables that already exist between the UK and Europe and we must think likewise about the power coming from the Berwick Bank.

Archibald A. Lawrie, Kingskettle

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